It was a welcome treat for us to have some first time Christmas visitors this year – The King Father and King Mother (parents of The Shell King). They decided to take a break from the dreary and cold weather of the North and make their way South for the Christmas holiday like a couple of snowbirds. Gearing up for the Christmas break, we decided to take our own break and visit some of the great beaches here. The King Father, who happens to be a wedding photographer is responsible for all the (many) pictures in this edition of the blog. (Photos courtesy of Bello Romance Photography)

King Mother, like her son is partial to Blind Pass. So that was the first stop on the Christmas Beach Run of 2012. Unfortunately, all we found were a slew of very broken shells. Not a good start to say the least. But as we always say here, even a cool day at the beach is better than a hot day at work – or a cold day in the snow. Unfortunately, the Queen did not accompany us due to the fact that SHE had to spend a hot day at work. Poor Shell Queen.

We continued to press on in our search for keeper shells while the King Father snapped pictures of the local wildlife.

We visited both sides of the Pass – the Sanibel side and the Captiva side, where the King Mother happened upon a couple of nice Flat Scallops, one of which was purple.

We moved to the Sanibel side of BP, only to discover more of the same. That didn’t stop King Mother from finding a few keepers of her own.

Shortly after, we traveled to Lighthouse Beach and Gulfside City Park to see if our luck would change.

And as luck would have it, we did find some keeper shells. But many were occupied, like the little guy inside this very cool Pear Whelk.

Two fun, refreshing days at the beach were had by all.

We’ll have another blog update for you this Friday – The last Thursday Thunder of the year.